The Paris Pastel Shop

The enchanting story of La Maison du Pastel, a tiny shop in Paris that has been providing pastels to artists since the eighteenth century, and the two women who fell in love and brought it back to life.

In a narrow sliver of a shop off a bustling street in the Marais district of Paris, you may find all the colors in the world. California Poppy, Reddish Gray, Storm Green, Seraphin Blue, Crepuscular Violet, Velvet Black, Bleu Nuit. Through the French Revolution and two world wars, La Maison du Pastel has produced pastels for some of the greatest artists of their eras: among them Edgar Degas, Odilon Redon, Édouard Vuillard, James McNeill Whistler, and Richard Serra. Winston Churchill too was a customer.

The shop was founded by Henri Roché, a chemist with a passion for artists’ materials, and was in the family for generations. But with the devastation wrought by World War II, the demanding and painstaking labor of creating these sticks of saturated color, and the passing of pastels from vogue, the shop—and the craft—seemed destined to die out. At the turn of the twenty-first century, however, it was rescued by a distant cousin of its founder, Isabelle Roché, whose own existential crisis led her to find her mission in La Maison.

Within a few years, Margaret Zayer, an American art student, a pastellist herself, came to Paris to visit the storied shop. She and Isabelle connected on a profound level and fell in love. Together they immersed themselves in resuscitating the business, restoring the atelier that had been looted by German troops, and recreating the pastels according to Henri’s original formulations. They’ve built a repertoire of eighteen hundred shades—all made by hand—and expanded the color vocabulary to capture elusive shades that seem to anticipate the needs sprung from an artist’s imagination.